The Asian Mind Game: Unlocking the Hidden Agenda of the Asian Business Culture - A Westerner's Survival Manual

My purchase of this book was made after discovering that I had given all my copies away to friends and colleagues. It is a fantastic resource for those who want to better understand how Asians, especially the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans, think about and do business. Some of the information is old as things are always changing in these places, but most of what you will learn will be of great worth towards achieving your business and personal goals in these places and, most importantly, avoiding fatal mistakes.

Excellent book! A good read

This book gives wonderful insights into the differences between cultures that most round-eyed foreign devils (I speak as one) tend to lump together as 'asian'. Once you've read the historical strategies that all educated Chinese/Korean/Japanese people have been taught, and which they draw on in everyday dealings, you'll never view their culture, or your own, the same way again. This book is so good that, just like the person who lifted it from my office, I can't do without it, and so I'm ordering it all over again!

This book confirmed everything I suspected after years of travels tp Asia.

Thanks

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This book was not quite as exciting as Thick face Black heart, but was still worth the read! I did find it very intriguing & helpful with gaining new insight regarding doing business with Japanese and Chinese. She shares straight from the heart & doesn't hold anything back when sharing Asian secrets. If you are a Business person or salesman who deals with Asians, YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK! I feel much more adequate to negotiate with Asians now!

Yes, the book is unsubtle, as some reviewers have complained. And the stereotypes are exaggerated. They're also a bit dated, since the book was written in 1991 -- before China's private economy had blossomed, before Taiwan and Korea had become such important high-tech centers, and before Japan went bust.The book also sensationalizes the degree to which people may be trying to deceive you, and the degree to which this deceit is based on your being a Westerner. Often the deceit, when it happens, is just a cultural way of dealing with embarrassment.But when I was a beginner with Asia, I found this book a helpful eye-opener. I'd never heard of "The 36 Stratagems", which another reviewer calls tedious (this was before Asian video games based on Chinese military classics became popular here). It turned out that just about all educated East Asian people I met, men and women, knew them to some degree. The book also describes some relevant differences among East Asian cultures - a cure for the usual Western point of view that lumps Japanese, Koreans, Chinese and others all into one "Asian" category.By now, most of my time in the past 9-10 years has been spent involved with East Asia and East Asian people. This has been at both a business and personal level, including through marriage and working for a Japanese company. From that perspective, I can also say the book's lack of political correctness and its hype about military strategy are kind of virtues.How? On its surface, the book is about Asian-Western interactions. But underneath, the book illustrates a lot about how people from different Asian cultures regard each other, both cross-culturally and intraculturally.Chairman Mao may have used the phrase "politically correct" from time to time, but in its current form it's a Western concept, and a recent one at that. It's also something that comes easier to the lips than to the heart or mind. My friends from Asian countries are usually more direct -- they often express quite stereotypical (and negative) views about people from neighboring countries, even when they make exceptions for individuals. More than once has some really balanced or sweet person mentioned to me after a pause, "But you know, I really can't stand people from X."Business practices and politics often can be pretty manipulative even against colleagues within the same company. (Watch just about any Japanese TV drama about office life, if you don't have a chance to experience the real thing.) And I've run into plenty of East Asian managers and executives who think they're great strategists in the style of the Chinese classics, even though in fact they're about as clumsy as you or I would be.Read this book with a grain of salt. But you can definitely benefit from having read it.

Excellent and sincere.

A really helpful tool for my business dealings in Asia

Als das Buch erschien, wurde die Autorin schweren Anwürfen aus der chinesischen Geschäftswelt ausgesetzt, sie enthülle den westlichen Geschäftsleuten Geheimnisse der chinesischen Angriffs- und Verhandlungstaktik und schade damit China.Dies zeigt, wie wertvoll die Hintergrundinformationen dieses Buches für jeden sind, der sich ernsthaft mit chinesischen Verhandlungspartnern auseinandersetzen muss.Das moderne Gegenstück aus westlicher Sicht ist das Buch " One Billion Customers" von James McGregor. Noch unentbehrlicher, weil leichter nachzuvollziehen und zu folgen.